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Audrey Hepburn in cigarette pants, a style she popularized

Slim-fit pants have a snug fit through the legs and end in a small leg opening. Jeans may be cut in this style, and then are often called skinny jeans. Other names for this style include carrot leg pants, cigarette pants, drainpipes, peg leg pants, pencil pants, skinny pants, slimjims, or tapered pants. In some styles, zippers are needed at the bottom of the leg to facilitate pulling them over your feet. Stretch denim, with anywhere from 2% to 4% spandex, may be used to allow jeans to have a super-slim fit.

Female stars such as Audrey Hepburn,^[1] Marilyn Monroe, and Sandra Dee wearing their pants very slim to the ankle.^[2] Skinny jeans became most notable with the birth of rock 'n' roll in the ’50s, when Elvis donned slim-fitting jeans and shocked the country with his gyrating dance moves.^[2] Skinny jeans and rock 'n' roll were inextricably linked to create the “bad boy” image that remains today.^[2] Skinny jeans were also worn by numerous rock bands, including the The Rolling Stones.

Drainpipe jeans (as they were then called) were also extremely popular in the punk movement of the late 1970s, worn by many bands and scene leaders such as The Clash, Ramones, The Sex Pistols and were sold by the revolutionary shop Sex, run by Vivienne Westwood.^[2] The tight fit trousers were often customised with bondage-style zips or patches of other material, and were often worn tucked into industrial-style boots such as Dr Martens.

Skinny jeans as worn in the 2000s

Skinny jeans returned to prominence in the 2000s.^[3][4] They began to show up on designer runways as early as 2002, and became widespread among mass fashion in 2005.^{[citation needed]} The new trend began in Europe and also in Asia.^{[citation needed]} Nicolas Ghesquiere, Karl Lagerfeld, and Stella McCartney, among others, included skinny jeans in their mid-2000s collections. Supermodel Kate Moss is widely credited with inspiring the trend.^{[citation needed]} Skinny jeans are most often worn tucked into boots or scrunched up over the wearer's footwear.

• Wide leg jeans
• Bell bottoms

1. ^ "And where would any list of the sartorially savvy be without a mention of Audrey Hepburn, her little black dress and her little slim pants, now interpreted for a new generation by the Gap?" Shattuck, Kathryn. "What's On Tonight." New York Times (Feb. 23, 2007).
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Hayashida, Lori. "The Skinny Jean: A Brief History."
3. ^ "Skinny legs and all: Jeans get slender." USA Today (Apr. 16, 2006).
4. ^ Wilson, Eric. "A New Size for Denim: Extra Tight." New York Times (May 4, 2006).